This is about, what some motoring enthusiasts believe, is the most beautiful car in the world, the most gorgeous form that ever crouched between four wheels. A car that is an automotive orchid on the outside, a watch-like precision of intricate engineering inside, a car that is the perfect synthesis of beauty and beast, of silk and steel, of art and science. A car that epitomises how an infinite series of exquisite details, that together, can create an effect of total harmony. Of how details like the slightly bulging air intakes on the B-pillar, along with the wide, almost bumper-less front chin, merges perfectly with the horizontal slats on the rear window and the hexagonal grille of the rear.

The Lamborghini Miura wasn't the product of a grand plan, a master strategy. It just kind of happened. Born a farmer, Ferruccio Lamborghini became a millionaire industrialist, who when insulted by Enzo Ferrari, decided to challenge the potentate of Maranello by making cars that would cock a snook at the best from the stable of the Prancing Horse. The Lamborghini 350 GT, from 1964, was the result of that. More modern than contemporary Ferraris and Maseratis, the 350GT was conventional in having its V12 in the front, driving the rear, through a fivespeed gearbox.

But then Lamborghini, at that time, had the sharpest young automotive talent in Europe. And harnessing them was difficult. The story goes that engineers Gianpaolo Dallara and Paolo Stanzani conspired with development test driver Bob Wallace to create a revolutionary chassis that they hoped would convince Ferruccio to allow them to go racing. Emulating racing cars of the time, they took the a V12 designed by ex-Ferrari engineer Giotto Bizzarini and located it ahead of the rear wheels, but transversely, within a stunning perforated sheet metal monocoque chassis. This prototype chassisengine combo was first shown at the Turin motor show of November 1965.